Nicola De Maria

Born in Foglianise in 1954, Nicola De Maria is one of the five artists of the Transavanguardia Italiana, alongside Sandro Chia, Francesco Clemente, Enzo Cucchi, and Mimmo Paladino, a movement theorized by Achille Bonito Oliva in 1978. Unlike his peers, De Maria focuses on pure abstraction, extending painting beyond the canvas into surrounding space.

He has exhibited at the Venice Biennale, Documenta in Kassel, the São Paulo and Sydney Biennials, and the Rome Quadriennale. His work has been celebrated in retrospectives at major museums including Kunsthalle Basel, Kunsthaus Zürich, the Stedelijk in Amsterdam, MACRO Rome, and Centro Pecci Prato.

De Maria lives and works in Turin.